We are at the beginning of a revolution of change in dentistry. At long last dentistry is beginning to come kicking and screaming into the modern era. Dental practices, in the most, are no longer dingy upstairs house conversions and are now front-and-centre on the high street, with glass frontage and beautiful waiting rooms that compete with most boutique spas.

So what's driving this marked change? For one, it's the patient who expects more from their health professionals and is willing to seek out a dental practice that looks as though it will deliver on their best interest. Rightly or wrongly this is seen within aesthetics of the practice.

Secondly there is the ‘rise of the corporate’. The corporates understand the space of building trust amongst patients and are spending a fortune on rebranding practices to align with that trusted and calming feeling: moving the patient to more emotional dentistry. Is the dentist any better? Absolutely not but it feels they should be and, let's face it, the patient

isn't truly aware of what good and bad dentistry is. Everything is associated with pain: good dentistry - no pain, bad dentistry - pain.

When the corporates entered dentistry several years ago they failed, as they could not get a quality team. However it has become significantly harder to run a profitable dental practice over the last 6 years and regulation and employment law is becoming more complex by the day. Many practice owners have just had enough and are opting for the corporate route of just doing what they were trained to do and enjoying dentistry. No longer do they need to be responsible for admin, finance and all the other cumbersome business stuff. The reality is not quite the utopia it seems, however the corporate will improve and eventually get all aspects right. The corporate fits well with a younger generation of dentists, who want more flexibility, don't have experience and have not seen the benefits of owning their own business.  Most may have dreams of owning their own practice however with university debt, higher equipment needs and growing regulation, it has never been harder to start your own practice.

So will there still be room for the independent? Absolutely, provided you take the challenge head on. The corporates are slow to react and any changes take huge amounts of time. The independent has the ability to make that change right now: get it right and gain the trust of the patient more than ever. The corporates won't be able to truly get that right for several years. What will make your practice stronger is customer service backed up with a quality, professional and convenient health care provision. It has never been easier or cheaper to build an interactive website or provide good quality regular information to patients. Keep yourself at the front of their mind so when adverts appear for dentistry on TV or social media they think of you first and not the business advertising. Invest in technology that makes dentistry better and your patients will appreciate it even if they don't say. Things like digital photography and smile design can make such a difference to patient acceptance and buy-in to a treatment.

Even better are Intra-oral scanners. Even though they may seem just a nice thing to have, they are an excellent way to build patient trust and loyalty and will bring more patients through word-of-mouth. 

They show the patient that you are investing in cutting edge technology and are at the top of your game. The patient journey is better and less uncomfortable and they will talk about it when they get home. In a few years scanners will become the norm and the edge will be gone. The corporate sees this too but you have the edge right now, as the corporate world takes so long to move on things.

If you embrace the changes in dentistry you will not only beat the corporates, you will also benefit from their marketing spend.

DTS as ‘more than just a dental lab’ can guide you through the small changes that make big differences, whether it's through offering digital oral scanning, modern material choices that improve patient satisfaction or more emotional dentistry with techniques like SKYN concept and Digital Smile Design. Give us a call today to arrange one of our informative lunch and learns or visit us with your team and let us show you how small things make big changes.